Balmoral

Balmoral is an interesting old name with a surprisingly modern cigar story. The marque itself can be traced back to 1895, taking its name from Balmoral Castle in Scotland, but the premium handmade cigars for which it is now best known are a much more recent development.

For many years Balmoral belonged to the Dutch Royal Agio Cigars business. The Wintermans family had acquired the brand in 1983, and it was under fourth-generation cigar man Boris Wintermans that Balmoral began its transformation into a serious premium cigar marque.

The great turning point came with the Balmoral Añejo 18. Launched in the early 2010s, it used an extraordinarily scarce Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper which had been aged for 18 years. It was a cigar that rather changed people's expectations of what Balmoral could be. The trouble with using exceptionally old tobacco, of course, is that sooner or later somebody smokes the last of it.

When supplies of that wrapper became exhausted, Balmoral developed its successor: Añejo XO. The XO stands for Extra Old, and ageing remained at the heart of the range. The original Añejo XO uses a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper alongside Balmoral's signature Brazilian Mata Norte tobacco, producing a rich character associated with cedar, cocoa, spice and an underlying natural sweetness.

And from there things became considerably more interesting.

The Añejo XO family expanded to explore different wrappers and blends. Añejo XO Oscuro brought in a dark Mexican San Andrés wrapper over Dominican binder and Nicaraguan, Dominican and Brazilian filler tobaccos. Añejo XO Connecticut went in the other direction with Connecticut Shade, while Añejo XO Nicaragua added another distinctly Nicaraguan interpretation of the concept.

The result is a Balmoral portfolio with quite a breadth of character. There are creamy, elegant cigars at one end and considerably darker combinations of San Andrés, Mata Norte and Nicaraguan tobacco at the other. What links them is Balmoral's particular interest in unusual tobacco combinations and well-aged leaf.

The cigars are traditionally handcrafted in San Pedro de Macorís in the Dominican Republic, where Royal Agio established its premium cigar production.

There has also been an important change behind the scenes. Scandinavian Tobacco Group acquired Royal Agio Cigars in 2020, bringing Balmoral into the same wider company responsible for a substantial collection of cigar brands. The portfolio has subsequently been rationalised, so availability of individual Balmoral blends and vitolas varies considerably by market.

That is worth remembering when looking through the Balmoral range. Some cigars have come and gone, others remain in production, and interesting new additions still appear – including the Puro Dominicana, introduced in 2024.

Balmoral is consequently rather difficult to pigeonhole, which is part of its appeal. It isn't tied to one wrapper, one country of tobacco or one flavour profile. Instead, the marque has built its reputation by hunting down interesting leaf and seeing what can be done with it.

A far cry from the days when the Balmoral name was chiefly associated with everyday European cigars. Añejo XO turned it into something cigar smokers started actively looking for – and deservedly so.